#76
Posted: 9/26/08 at 4:12pm
And I just saw that damned Nora O'Donnell on MSNBC interviewing a Politico roboto who basically said Palin's numbers are down partisan lines, and that Republicans felt her performance was just fine. That's simply a lie -- look at the Kathleen Parker piece (separate thread) -- many people are in public and in private voicing more than a little concern.
But the idea that she shouldn't have travelled abroad because only 28.8 million Americans have passport (80 million people, by the way -- not the population of, say...Alaska) is preposterous. If she were running for Mayor, or even Governor, fine, let her stay. But this indicative of a Bush level of incuriosity about the outside world, a rabid kind of "elite" provincialism -- the new spin: "I'm actually untained by world politics, so I'm more 'normal' and better than you."
It's a new low, the idea that the brightest and best shouldn't apply to the highest office -- that instead we need small town unaccomplished mediocrities because somehow, devoid of an Ivy League education, such a person is more 'real.' This new dumbing down is many things, but it's first and foremost unAmerican. Who the hell founded this country?
But the idea that she shouldn't have travelled abroad because only 28.8 million Americans have passport (80 million people, by the way -- not the population of, say...Alaska) is preposterous. If she were running for Mayor, or even Governor, fine, let her stay. But this indicative of a Bush level of incuriosity about the outside world, a rabid kind of "elite" provincialism -- the new spin: "I'm actually untained by world politics, so I'm more 'normal' and better than you."
It's a new low, the idea that the brightest and best shouldn't apply to the highest office -- that instead we need small town unaccomplished mediocrities because somehow, devoid of an Ivy League education, such a person is more 'real.' This new dumbing down is many things, but it's first and foremost unAmerican. Who the hell founded this country?
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling